The housing of a gas turbine or of a gas turbine combustion chamber has to be cooled when the gas turbine is in operation. For this purpose, it is customary to lead a cooling gas path through the housing in the circumferential direction of the latter. Such a cooling gas path in this case connects a first housing connection, which serves, for example, as a cooling gas inlet, to a second housing connection, which serves, for example, as a cooling gas outlet. The cooling gas, when flowing through the cooling gas path, heats up. The housing correspondingly possesses a lower temperature at the cooling gas inlet than at the cooling gas outlet. This means that a circumferential temperature difference occurs in the circumferential direction of the housing. This circumferential temperature difference should not overshoot a predetermined maximum value when the gas turbine is in operation, in order to avoid damage to the housing due to thermal stresses. Furthermore, an average temperature of the housing also should not overshoot a predetermined maximum value, in order to avoid damage to the housing.
It has been shown, however, that, in conventional housing cooling, there is an interaction between the average temperature and the circumferential temperature difference of the housing. When the average temperature is reduced, for example by the lowering of the cooling gas temperature at the cooling gas inlet, this automatically leads to an increase in the circumferential temperature difference. Conversely, a raising of the average temperature, for example by an increase in the cooling gas inlet temperature, automatically leads to a reduction in the circumferential temperature difference. In conventional housing cooling, therefore, the setting of the circumferential temperature difference and the setting of the average temperature are always a compromise between a comparatively high circumferential temperature difference and a comparatively high average temperature.